Food encasing material



Patented Aug. 2, 1949 FOOD ENCASING MATERIAL Robert K. Remer, Elgin,Ill., assignor' to Transparent Package Company, Chicago, 111., acorporation of Illinois No Drawing. Application January 3, 1949, SerialNo. 69,055

1.6 Claims.

The present invention relates, generally, to enencasing material such aswrappings, bags, or casing, for artificially colored foodstuffs andmethods of coloring the same.

This application is a continuation in part of my prior applicationSerial No. 42,739, filed August 5, 1948.

The object of the present invention, generally stated, is the provisionof encasing material, such as wrappings, 'bags, or tubular casings, forartificially colored foodstuffs, with the encasing material taking theform of films or foils uniformly impregnated with soluble ediblecoloring materials which upon contact with foodstuffs receptive theretotransfer substantially uniformly to the entire surface of contact so asto color the same.

An important object of the present invention is the provision of a newand useful method of artificially coloring substantially completely andunirormly the outer surface of an article of foodstuff which comprisesencasing such foodstuff article in a permeable film which has beensubstantially uniformly and completely impregnated with the solublecolorin material receptive by said foodstuff.

Certain other and more specific objects of the invention will, in part,be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

For a more complete understanding of the nature and scope of the presentinvention reference may now be had to the following detailed descriptionthereof wherein a number of specific embodiments of the invention areset forth by way of illustration and to acquaint those skilled in theart with the manner of practicing the invention.

Example I The invention has been put to extended use in the productionof artificially colored, skinless wieners, as fully'described in my saidcopending application Serial No. 42,739. Seamless tubes of regeneratedcellulose films are first made in known manner as set forth, forexample, in United States Patents Nos. 1,601,686; 1,937,225; 1,997,349;and 2,013,491. While the casings so made are still wet, they areconducted through an aqueous solution of glycerine containing a solubleedible coloring material compatible therewith, such, for example, as awater soluble, edible, coal tar dye. The glycerine serves both toplasticize the regenerated cellulose film and also serves as a carrieror solvent for the dye which uniformly and completely impregnates thefilm. After leaving the plasticizing and color impregnating bath, thetubular casing may be dried in known manner, as by passage throughdrying tunnels.

Various modifications may be made in the foregoing method of producingmy colored sausage casings for use in the production of skinlesswieners. Thus, instead of passing the casings through the colorimpregnating bath, the coloring material may be applied by spraying,brush coating, padding or by sponge rolls. The color treatment may beeffected in a separate operation instead of being combined with theplasticizing step. If desired, colorless, dry sausage casings formed ofregenerated cellulose made by known methods, may be impregnated with asoluble coloring material according to one of the methods of applicationmentioned above.

While glycerine is the presently preferred plasticizer and coloringmaterial carrier for films formed of regenerated cellulose, theglycerine may be wholly or partially replaced by other plasticizers ormodifying agents such, as for example, other polyhydric alcohols knownto have plasticizing properties (e. g. sorbitol and mannitoll and ureaas a modifying agent. Edible, oilsoluble, coloring materials, such as FD8r C Red #32, FD it 0 Yellow #3,,FD 8 0 Yellow #4, and FD 82 (3' Orange#2, can be used. Vegetable oils and emulsions, such as castor oil, soybean oil, corn oil or peanut oil may be added to the com= binedplasticizing and color treating bath. Polyethylene glycol (commerciallyavailable as Car bowaiz 4000-6000 series) may be used as a plasticizerin connection with the oil-soluble coloring materials. However, thepresently pre-= ferred plasticizer for regenerated cellulose film isglycerine since this material has excellent penc trati'ng properties forthis film.

Because of pertinent governmental regulations, the soluble coloringmaterials usually em ployed include such dyestufis or coal tar colors aswill meet with the approval of the various regulating authorities. Suchcoloring materials are ordinarily referred to as "certified colors. Forexample, the live following coal tar colors, or mixtures thereof, may besuitably used for the present invention:

In the production of self coloring sausage cas ings for skinlesswieners, satisfactory results have been obtained by adding up to 10% byweight of one of the above mentioned certified coal tar dyes,

to a glycerine plasticizing bath which contains from 1 to 30% by weightof glycerine. After passing through this modified plasticizing bathwhich, in my process, is also a dyeing bath, the

regenerated cellulose casings are handled and dried in the usual manner.

The color impregnated, regenerated cellulose pregnated sausage casingsare stuffed with sausage emulsion and the coloring material immediatelytransfers to the color receptive sausage emulsion so as to give theentire surface thereof in contact with the interior of the casing auniform, but shallow, color. The stuffed casings are then linked orreeled, smoked, cooked, chilled and skinned in known manner, except thatno additional coloring is required as indicated above.

. The colored, skinless wieners produced through the use of the colorimpregnated sausage casings described above are superior in quality tocolored skinless wieners produced by previous methods, and in addition,utilization of the color impregnated sausage casing permits the sausagemaker to eliminate the troublesome and inefiicient technique of coloringthe skinless wieners which formed a part of the conventional method ofproduction using colorless sausage casings. With respect to improvementin quality, colored skinless wieners produced by use of mycolor-impregnated sausage casings, are free from undesirable stick marksor smoke stick white which are associated with colored skinless wienersproduced using colorless sausage casings. Thus,'the selfcoloring orcolor impregnated sausage casings of the present invention not onlyserve uniformly and completely to color the skinless wieners, but theypermit this coloring operation to be carried out more emciently and inan approved manner.

Example II A length of colorless sausage casing formed of regeneratedcellulose and of known commercial type, was treated with an aqueoussolution of FD 8: C Yellow #5 which contained lemon extract flavor. Thefilm was dried and three lengths were cut from it. One of these lengthswas filled with sugar water, a second length was filled with melted hardcandy, and the third length was filled with vanilla ice cream mix. Eachof the fillings was frozen in the respective lengths of the colortreated sausage casing, and it was found that the film could be easilystripped in each case. In the case of the sugared water, a yellowcolored, lemon flavored popsicle was obtained. The surfaces of the candyand the ice cream were colored yellow. If it is desired to color thecandy and the ice cream throughout instead of just on the surface, thesetwo materials can be kneaded in the plastic condition before beingfrozen, the kneading serving to uniformly distribute the colorthroughout the material.

Example III A seamless, regenerated cellulose sausage casing wasimpregnated with FD 8: C Orange #1 in accordance with the proceduredescribed above in connection with Example I. A length of this wasuniformly drawn from the colored casing and imparted a uniform orangecolor to the surface of the cheese. 7 g

While the coloring material in this case is water soluble, it was foundthat the water content of the cheese was suflicient to cause the cheeseto be receptive to the transfer of color from the impregnatedregenerated cellulose casing. An oil soluble, or fat-water solublecoloring material would have been equally or perhaps more eflective incoloring the cheese.

Example IV Samples of each of the following difierent films were treatedwith a dye solution containing 0.81

- gm. of ED 8: C Orange I dye per 100 ml. of solution:

Naturine (a known sausage casing material made of hide fleshings).

2. Vegetable parchment paper.

3. Regenerated cellulose film containing un- -modified cotton lintersincorporated therein.

- 4. Regenerated cellulose film.

-5. Natural sheep gut sausage casing.

Each of the samples of the five above films was impregnated with colorby a twenty-one second immersion in the coloring solution. The

pieces of film were removed from the solution which are permeable. Thatis, films which can color impregnated tubing was filled with a sample 7of melted white process cheese. The cheese was cooled and it was foundthat the orange color be impregnated or permeated with one or more ofthe following: water, glycerine, alcohol, animal and vegetable fats andoils, waxes and parafiins. Some films, e. g., regenerated cellulose, arepermeable with respect to both aqueous liquids and oily or greasyliquids. In such cases, these films may be impregnated with either watersoluble or oil soluble coloring materials, which may be used alone forimpregnation or which may be incorporated with a carrier such asglycerine or one of the plasticizers mentioned in Example I above.

The soluble coloring materials with which the different types of filmsare impregnated or treated, do not serve permanently to color or dye thefilms. In most instances practically all of the coloring material may bedissolved out of the films leaving the film in its original conditionwith respect to the color thereof.

A good many foodstuffs have good receptivity for both water soluble andoil soluble coloring material. Some foodstuffs exhibit a betterreceptivity for one type of coloring material over another. However,there is a rather large number of approved coloring materials of theproper type of solubility and which are edible, so that foodstuffsgenerally may be colored in accordance with the present invention.

Among the natural coloring materials which may be used, as distinguishedfrom the dyestuffs or coal tar dyes, there may be included such naturalcoloring materials as alkanet, annatteo, carotene, cochineal, greenchlorophyll, saffron and turmeric. If desired, mixtures of two or morecoal tar dyes or natural coloring materials may be used, with or withoutincluding such harmless inert materials as common salt or sugar.Although for many applications and uses it is advantageous to have thecolor impregnated films of the present invention in the form ofcontinuous tubes, it will be understood that such films also may takethe form of a wide variety of wrapping, bags or casings in accordancewith the demands and needs of any particular instance. In many cases itis desirable to strip the films from the finished articles, as inthecase of colored skinless wieners. However, if desired, the films may beleft in place on the articles.

It will be understood that the foregoing specific embodiments of theinvention are given by way of illustration and not by way of limitationand that the scope of the invention is to be measured by the appendedclaims. In view of the specific embodiments disclosed above, thoseskilled in the art will be able to make a number of other specificembodiments of the invention.

What I claim as new is:

1. Encasing material for artificially coloring foodstuffs comprising apermeable film substantially uniformly and completely impregnated with asoluble coloring material adapted uniformly to transfer to and color thefilmoontacting surface of foodstuff encased therein and receptive tosaid coloring material.

2. Encasing material for artificially coloring foodstuffs comprising apermeable cellulosic base film substantially uniformly and completelyimpregnated with a soluble edible coloring material adapted uniformly totransfer to and color the film contacting surface of foodstuff encasedtherein and resceptive tosaid coloring material.

3. Encasing material for artificially coloring foodstuffs comprising a.permeable protein base film substantially uniformly and completelyimpregnated with a soluble edible coloring material adapted uniformly totransfer to and color the film contacting surface of foodstuff encasedtherein and receptive to said coloring material.

4. Encasing material for artificially coloring foodstuffs comprisingnaturine film substantially uniformly and completely impregnated with asoluble edible coloring material adapted uniformly to transfer to andcolor the film contacting surface of foodstufl encased therein andreceptive to said coloring material.

5. Encasing material for artificially coloring foodstuffs comprising ananimal gut sausage casing substantially uniformly and completelyimpregnated with a soluble edible coloring material adapted uniformly totransfer to and color the film contacting surface of foodstuff encasedtherein and receptive to said coloring material.

6. The encasing material of claim 1 wherein said soluble edible coloringmaterial is a coal tar dye.

7. The encasing material of claim 2 wherein said soluble edible coloringmaterial is a coal tar dye.

8. The encasing material of claim 3 wherein said soluble edible coloringmaterial is a coal tar dye.

9. Theencasing material of claim 4 wherein said soluble edible coloringmaterial is a coal tar dye. I

10. The encasing material of claim 5 wherein said soluble ediblecoloring material is a coal tar dye.

11. The encasing'material of claim 1 wherein said soluble ediblecoloring material is a natural coloring material.

12. The encasing material of claim 2 wherein said soluble ediblecoloring material is a natural coloring matter. V

13. The encasing material of claim 3 wherein said soluble ediblecoloring material is a natural coloring matter. I

14. The encasing material of claim 4 wherein said soluble ediblecoloring material is a natural coloring matter. I i

15. The encasing material of claim 5 wherein said soluble ediblecoloring material is a natural coloring matter.

16. The method of artificially coloring substan tially uniformly andcompletely the surface of a foodstuff which comprises encasing thefoodstuff in a permeable film substantially uniformly and completelyimpregnated with a soluble coloring material receptive by saidfoodstuff.

' ROB'ERT K. REMER.

No references cited.

